BREAKING: US and Allies hit ISIS targets in Syria. Bombing campaign begins.

[T.Lex]

Best training money can buy.

Or worst, depending on your perspective on these things.

 

[rambone]

Has anyone attempted a reasonable justification as to why we're dropping bombs on these people? Planes/pilots/fuel/bombs cost marklar****ed money. Stahp it.

Because terrorism.

 

[ArcadiaGP]

Canada's in
BBC News - Canada to join anti-IS air strikes

 

[ArcadiaGP]

Non-war against non-_____ group produces first casualty.

Marine first U.S. military casualty in ISIS campaign - CNN.com

 

[Kirk Freeman]

Army helicopters join the undeclared war, er, police action, er attempt to save Democrats before November elections:

Army Apache helos used in strikes against Islamic State | Army Times | armytimes.com

 

[T.Lex]

Technically, they are better suited to that role than F/A-18s. But, I don't disagree with your point.

 

[ArcadiaGP]

Turkish President Erdogan says Kobane is about to fall and a ground operation is needed to defeat ISIS

 

[mrjarrell]

Turkish President Erdogan says Kobane is about to fall and a ground operation is needed to defeat ISIS

Well, considering that just last week he was saying that Turkey wouldn't let Kobane fall, I'd say it's about time for the ******* to step up his game. So far all Turkey's done is exchange something over 150 IS fighters for Turkish prisoners. He needs to put his money where his mouth in. He certainly has more to lose than we do.

 

[ArcadiaGP]

JUST IN: Syria has 4 chemical weapons facilities that it did not previously disclose to the UN

John Kerry, call your office.

 

[jbombelli]

I wish I could say I was surprised at that. The way I see it the use of legitimate WMDs demands retaliation with legitimate WMDs. At that point everything else has failed and you either bring it or you don't. So things might get take a bad turn. I hope they don't.

 

[T.Lex]

Al-Qaeda 'orders Syria's Al-Nusra Front not to attack West' - BBC News

File this under "Strange Bedfellows"...

Al-Qaeda's affiliate in Syria has been ordered by the jihadist network not to use the country to launch attacks on the West, the group's leader has said.

But, there is also a bit of debunking of the current administration's labeling of a "Khorasan Group."

The al-Nusra leader also denied claims by the US that it had a secret cell called the "Khorasan Group" that was tasked with plotting attacks outside Syria.
"There is nothing called Khorasan group. The Americans came up with it to deceive the public. They claim that this secret group was set up to target the Americans but this is not right."

For those of you playing along at home, the Khorasan Group seemed a convenient bogeyman to generate support for airstrikes.
Khorasan (Islamist group) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


AQ also promised to protect ethnic minorities:

Julani also vowed that al-Nusra would not harm members of Syria's Christian and Druze minorities who did not fight against it, and that Alawites would be safe if they "drop their weapons, disavow Assad, do not send their men to fight for him and return to Islam".
"The battle does not end in Qardaha, the Alawite village and the birthplace of the Assad clan," he explained. "Our war is not a matter of revenge against the Alawites despite the fact that in Islam, they are considered to be heretics."

The Alawites are basically a sub-group of Shia.

 

[T.Lex]

Along with capturing Sirte in Libya (documented elsewhere on INGO), an alliance of groups has captured a significant army base in Deraa province, south of Damascus.

Syria conflict: Rebels seize major army base in Deraa - BBC News

The Southern Front, an alliance of rebel groups, announced that the base, known as Brigade 52, was "liberated" in an attack on Tuesday morning.
The base, outside the town of Harak, is one of the largest in Deraa province.

 

[mrjarrell]

I'm pretty sure it's all but over in Syria. Wonder if Assad already has an apartment picked out in Moscow?

 

[T.Lex]

Probably next door to Snowden.

 

[T.Lex]

Julani also vowed that al-Nusra would not harm members of Syria's Christian and Druze minorities who did not fight against it, and that Alawites would be safe if they "drop their weapons, disavow Assad, do not send their men to fight for him and return to Islam".

Well... maybe not....
Syria conflict: Al-Nusra fighters kill Druze villagers - BBC News

Wednesday's shooting occurred after a Tunisian al-Nusra commander tried to confiscate a house belonging to a Druze man who he claimed was loyal to the Syrian government.Relatives of the house's owner protested and tried to stop the commander.

The dispute soon turned violent and a villager was shot dead before another seized the rifle of an al-Nusra fighter and opened fire, killing one of the jihadists, the Syrian Observatory said. Reinforcements were called in by the commander and at least 20 villagers were shot, it added.
Sources told the BBC that the al-Nusra commander accused the Druze of being "kuffar" (infidels) before ordering the mass shooting, and that rebel groups allied to al-Nusra, including Ahrar al-Sham, eventually intervened to stop the bloodshed.

 

[T.Lex]

Hmmm... another French-speaking (along with Dutch) country showing how diplomacy works.
Syria conflict: Belgium rescues 200 Aleppo Christians - BBC News

Some 240 people, mainly Christians, have been brought out of Syria's second city of Aleppo and taken to Belgium, the government in Brussels says.
...
The operation took place over two months and amid great secrecy. Belgium is one of several European countries that have come under pressure to help Christians and other religious minorities in Syria threatened with persecution.
"We did it via civil society organisations which could get them out of there," a foreign ministry spokesman said.